PROGRAM

Click the show titles to read program notes for each piece.

1–3:30pm at The Evergreens Cemetery

Edna Victor Edna Romeo, part 1 ––  Kennis Hawkins

4–6pm at Queenslab

With Marion –– Leslie Cuyjet

Edna Victor Edna Romeo, part 2 ––  Kennis Hawkins

6–7pm Outdoor Intermission

7–8pm at Queenslab

Break-Up Tunnel Vision Infinity, 2nd Edition –– Alex Rodabaugh 

Curated and facilitated by Moriah Evans and Yve Laris Cohen.

This is A Dance: Dance and Process 2021 is made possible with commissioning support from Marta Heflin Foundation; annual grants from Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and The Harkness Foundation for Dance; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. 

Season programming is made possible in part with support from The Kitchen’s Board of Directors and The Kitchen Leadership Fund.

PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL CREW

Stage Manager and COVID Supervisor: Randi Rivera 

Lighting Designer: Amanda K. Ringger

Assistant Lighting Designer: Saúl Ulerio

Audio Engineer: Andrya Ambro

Technicians: Robert Wuss, Shannon Clarke, Kathrine Mitchell, Ian Douglas-Moore, Drew Sensue-Weinstein, Cody Lee, Leo Janks, Molly Siskin, Mike Faba, Mariana Catalina, Melo Davis

Photographer: Paula Court

Videography: Iki Nakagawa and Al Foote III

EDNA VICTOR EDNA ROMEO
Created and Performed by Kennis Hawkins

Thanks to everyone at The Kitchen who made the DAP 2020–2021 journey possible, especially Matthew, Rayna, Alison, and Kathy. To Zack, Randi, Andrya, Mandy, and the entire production team for the technical support. To Sean for skillfully transforming our The Kitchen OnScreen project into a publication in record speed. To Iki for channeling with me. To Will, Lathan, and Jessica for generously spending time with the early stages of this work. To Andros for his love and patience. Shout out to fellow DAP 2020 artist Kris K.Q. Pourzal. Endless love and gratitude to Moriah, Yve, Leslie, and Alex without whom I would have been lost at sea without a rudder.

Presented in partnership with The Evergreens Cemetery, with thanks to Julie Bose and Lauren Glennon. The Evergreens Cemetery, a historic cemetery in the “rural” style, was incorporated in 1849 and covers 225 acres. Over 526,000 people are buried here, including notables such as tap legend Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, jazz musician Lester Young, and painter Martin Heade. The Evergreens Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places. thevergreenscemetery.org

KENNIS HAWKINS is a dancer and dance maker. Her work engages questions of absence and presence. She has performed in work by Andros Zins-Browne, Maria Hassabi, John Jasperse, Antonija Livingstone and Nadia Lauro, and David Neumann, among others. She was a re-performer in Marina Abramovic’s Museum of Modern Art retrospective The Artist is Present and an interpreter in Tino Sehgal’s This Variation at dOCUMENTA(13). Hawkins was one half of the performance duo Dance Gang (with Will Rawls). Her work has been presented by Movement Research, Food For Thought at Danspace Project, AUNTS, Catch, and The Brooklyn Rail.

BREAK-UP TUNNEL VISION INFINITY, 2ND EDITION:
this is a dance
Created by Alex Rodabaugh

Act 1: Obedient
Act 2: Brave
Act 3: Trustworthy
Act 4: Thrifty
Act 5: Reverent
Act 6: Clean

Performers and Improvisers: Avery Anthony, Laurel Atwell, Toni Carlson, Charles Gowin

Music: Disney (Lyrics by Larry Morey; Composed by Frank Churchill), Blawan, Glee Karaoke, Lee Ann Womack

Choreography: Alex Rodabaugh, Cienna Dance, mflaggchoreography, Ashton Kline, BJ Byrne

Art Assistant: Andy Kuncl

Performance Notes

Break-Up Tunnel Vision Infinity, 2nd Edition is a transplanted work from Lima, Ohio—Alex Rodabaugh’s hometown. In May 2019 Rodabaugh resided in Lima, which culminated in this work’s first edition. He invited four NYC-based dancers born and raised in the Midwest to join him—Toni Carlson of Viola, Minnesota; Avery Anthony of Columbus, Ohio; Laurel Atwell of Bainbridge, Ohio; Charles Gowin of Hallsville, Missouri. This work is not about Lima, nor Ohio, but it is from and of these and other small places in the Midwest. The title, Break-Up Tunnel Vision Infinity, references two sources. One is the ubiquitous hunting camouflage pattern (trademarked by Realtree) named “Break-Up Infinity.” Another is the imperceptible condition of “tunnel vision” (also referred to as narrowcasting) imposed by targeted content and advertisement on internet platforms. Combined, the title conveys a struggle to break out of polarizing internet-fueled tunnel vision.

Special Thanks

Thanks to Alvaro Gonzalez for additional lighting support, to Zack, Randi, and Yve for encouraging the little hazer that could, to Mike Faba for incredible lighting board programming, to Drew Sensue-Weinstein for quick qlab engineering, to Mandy, Saúl and Andrya for steering the beast, to Moriah, Yve, Leslie, and Kennis for constant support and set design assistance and to the legacy supporters who helped plant the first edition of the work: The Coop Fund, Jody Oberfelder, snooze, Bailey Williams, Miguel Gutierrez, Diana Kole, Susan Gowin, Lee Relvas, Aviva Novick, Ashley Rodabaugh, Derek Smith, Caitlin Rush, Christine and David Rodabaugh, Lima Dance Academy, Bart Mills, Jennifer Brogee, The Meeting Place on Market, Omar Zehery, Kayla Nocera, Cordelia Roberts, Elsa Brown, Diana Crum, Kyle Abraham, Mariam Dingilian, Benny Olk, Tess Dworman, Philip Simon, Tamara Alegre, Sara Lyons, Madison Krekel, Brian Hunt, Diane Roberts, Katie Campbell, Moey Newbold, Tony Heaphy, Ashley Rodabaugh, Dan Brandesky, David Hunt, David Zupan, Cait Rush, Jessica Cabot, Lisa Boscov-Ellen, Peter Manges, Sara Nichols, Jamey Lowdermilk, Jessica Goldschmidt, Millie Kapp, Kathleen Matysik, Amber Hunt, Ryan David O'Byrne, Ethan Philbrick, Amanda Jones, Alexandra Tatarsky, Bob and Julie Hunt, Isaac Lindy, Sigrid Lauren, Ayano Elson, Tara Sheena, Colleen Kesner, Lindsay Reuter, Rachael Dichter, Kyli Klevin, Aviva Novick, Talya Epstein, Kyle Dacuyan, Brett Douglas, Greer Dworman, Stevie May, Jaime Wright, Nitsan Margaliot, Blaze Ferrer, Martita Abril, Bryson Armstrong, and Mary B Heringhaus.

Creator and Performer Bios

ALEX RODABAUGH creates performances within the lineage of dance and choreography. His work includes found performance, dance generated from numerical scores, improvisation, and both found and original text, with a primary focus on framing. Rodabaugh has performed in Simone Forti’s The Work Is Never Done at MoMA and worked with artists such as Miguel Gutierrez, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Derek Smith, and Bailey Williams, among others. Rodabaugh most recently performed in Tess Dworman’s A Child Retires at the Chocolate Factory. His work has been shown at Movement Research at Judson Church, Draftworks, Double Plus at Gibney, PRELUDE, and American Realness. www.alexrodabaugh.work.

AVERY ANTHONY is an interdisciplinary artist who first encountered the elements of performance art, healing, and community engagement among several church settings across the country. Today, having been liberated from church space and identity, he is in hot pursuit of those same elements as they arrive oddly and unpredictably. From watercolor painting to music composition, Anthony remains curious about telling intersectional stories across several art media. Check out his self portraiture on Instagram @youma70h.

LAUREL ATWELL performs, makes performance-based work, and teaches qi gong.

TONI CARLSON is a dancer and performance maker based in Brooklyn. She has appeared in the work of Yanira Castro, Sarah A.O Rosner, Lance Gries, Ishmael Houston-Jones & Miguel Gutierrez, Brendan Fernandes, and Ming Wong as well as her own. She has presented her own work as part of the Rooftop/GroundFloor Introducing Series, Hot Consumer Trash, curated by Alex Romania, and through Movement Research at the Judson Church.

CHARLES GOWIN is a dancer from Columbia, Missouri. He received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois in the Fall of 2015. Since moving to Brooklyn, he has had the pleasure of dancing for Katy Pyle’s Ballez in Sleeping Beauty & the Beast and Slavic Goddesses, Brendan Fernandes, Tere O’Conner, Ellie Goudie-Averill, Alex Rodabaugh, Emma Brown, Juri Onuki, and Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez.